How Often Do AI Agents Need Updates or Maintenance?
Ongoing costs: model upgrades, skill edits, connector drift, eval debt, and monthly sustain budgets.
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Direct answer
Plan monthly skill tweaks, quarterly eval refresh, and immediate patches when APIs or policies change. Budget 10–20% of build cost annually for sustain.
Key points
- Model upgrades can shift tone — regression required
- CRM field changes break connectors silently
- Assign a Keeper — orphan agents rot
Maintenance calendar
| Cadence | Task |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Sample review 20 outputs |
| Monthly | Eval add failures |
| Quarterly | Policy + connector audit |
| Ad hoc | Vendor API deprecation |
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